


Play Along

by CuriousThimble



Series: Anders and FemHawke Shorts [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 23:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15083990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriousThimble/pseuds/CuriousThimble
Summary: Struggling to deal with her mother's death, Hawke turns her attention to helping Anders in his clinic.





	Play Along

####  **Play Along**

Anders tried very hard to keep his clinic and his romance with Hawke separate. He wasn't certain that the two would survive one another with the way they both consumed his attention. So when she sauntered into the clinic one day in plain clothes and carrying baskets, he almost didn't know how to react.

 

“What are you doing here?” he asked, taking one of the heavy baskets from her.

 

“I was playing cards with Varric last night, and he noticed you weren't home when he left,” she explained, following him to his desk. “I told him you’d been working late, and he mentioned a sickness in Darktown. He said you asked him for a loan for supplies,” she added, raising an eyebrow.

 

Anders starts to stutter a response, but she put a hand on his cheek and smiled. Before he could even form a coherent thought, she was talking again.

 

“So this morning I did some shopping, and here I am.”

 

“You what?” he said, lifting the cloth cover of the basket he held and looking inside. There were dozens of potion ingredients- Varric must have told her where to go, he realized.

 

“I’m here to help,” she said, going to the small room in the back that served as a storeroom. “Just do what you do, and don't mind me.”

 

“Hawke you don't have to,” he told her, following. “If the templars raid...you’d be arrested and hanged.”

 

“As if I haven't done a hundred other things worth a hanging,” she laughs, tying an apron on. She turned, giving him that look that said she was getting her way. “If there’s sickness here, I want to help. I’m no healer, but I can dress a wound and administer a potion. Now go see to your patients while I get things organized back here.”

 

Anders stared at her while she jumped into action, moving around the storeroom pulling things from shelves and muttering to herself.  _ A light in the darkness, indeed. _ Hawke all but pushed him out into the clinic, and for the next few hours he returned focus entirely to the task at hand.

 

The typical clinic chaos took over the day, and Hawke attacked it with the same efficiency and enthusiasm as she did everything else. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as she directed patients to empty cots, jotted down their complaints before he saw to them, and made notes on their care in his notebook. 

 

“I never realized you were so...organized,” he laughed when she forced him to stop for lunch. “You’ve just come in and made everything...simple.”

 

Hawke shrugged as if it were nothing. “Just trying to be helpful.”

 

He laughed again, gesturing to the storeroom with his sandwich. “You’ve washed bottles and stocked supplies, swept and helped with patients. You’ve been more than helpful, sweetheart,” he says, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles. “I wish there was some way to thank you.”

 

The playfulness leaves her, sympathy and sadness taking over her posture as she looks out into the clinic. “These are my people, too,” she says quietly. “Fereldens. The poor. Just because I live in Hightown doesn’t mean I’m not the same girl who sold herself to get into Kirkwall.” Her brows knit together, and she looks fierce for a moment. “If I can help them, I will. I don’t care what it takes.”

 

“And the mages?” he asks in a whisper. “Do you plan to be their champion as well?”

 

Her face softens when she looks back to him, and his heart melts. “Of course, love. You and I will champion them together.”

 

Emotion threatens to overwhelm him, and he takes one last bite of his sandwich, swallowing past the lump in his throat. “Time to get back to it, I suppose.”

 

She nods, wrapping their leftovers in waxed cloth and storing them in her basket. “Varric will be here soon with the linens, so we might as well.”

 

“The linens?”

 

As if waiting for his cue- and with Varric one could never be sure he wasn’t- the dwarf strolled into the clinic with two burly men carrying crates behind him. “Well well, if it isn’t my favorite gambler,” he laughed, clasping Hawke’s wrist in greeting. “Are you spending my money wisely?”

 

“A little,” she said, eyes dancing. “And a lot of it  _ unwisely. _ ”

 

Varric’s booming laugh filled the clinic, and he slapped his leg. “This is why I like you, Waffles.”

 

Anders looked from one to the other, confused. “I’m having a lot of visitors today…” he said vaguely.

 

“Don’t worry, Blondie,” Varric assured him, gesturing to the two men behind him. “We’re just here for a delivery.”

 

“Of what?”

 

“I don’t know,” he said, strolling around and looking. “Whatever Hawke told me to pick up.”

 

Hawke started stripping the threadbare sheets from the empty cots, instructing the men to open the crates. “I ordered you new sheets,” she explained, and handed him one.

 

“New sheets,” he murmurs, stroking the sturdy linen. They weren’t fine and luxurious like the ones they slept on at home, but they were clean and would last a long time. “Hawke, why are you doing this?”

 

She just smiled and went back to work, spreading the new linens out and helping patients into the clean cots so she could change the others. 

 

“I bet I can answer that,” Varric said, pulling him aside.

 

“Please do,” Anders pleaded. “She just showed up today and I have no idea what’s going on.”

 

“You know better than anyone that she’s still grieving,” Varric said softly, studying her. “Losing Sunshine to the Circle and her mother to that mage...I think this is how she’s chosen to work that out.”

 

“By helping with my clinic?” he asked, frowning in confusion. “How is that going to help?”

 

“Really, Blondie?” the dwarf asked, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t see it? She’s trying to save her mother by saving  _ them _ .”

 

Suddenly everything falls into place, and Anders looks out into the clinic with awe. “I...didn’t realize. She doesn’t share that very much.”

 

“Of course not. That girl wants everyone to think she’s fine, but we all know she’s not. I’ll play along if it helps. And I suspect she’s missed you.”

 

“I’m needed here,” he defended. “She knows that.”

 

“Has she complained?” Varric asked testily. “Or has she come down here and rolled up her sleeves? You’ve got a hell of a woman there, Blondie.”

 

Anders turned back to watch her soothe a crying child with a burn, stopping his tears and teasing a smile out of him. “Yes, I really do. I just wish I could give her what she gives me.”

 

“Give her what you can, and she’ll be happy with that,” Varric advised. “She’s not the type to ask for more than that.”


End file.
